Bengals 31, Packers 24: A painful loss

Clifton injury adds to disarray along offensive line

Sep. 20, 2009

Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, left, watches as tackle Chad Clifton is attended to after an injury during Sunday's game against the Cincinnati Bengals at Lambeau Field. Corey Wilson/Press-Gazette

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Their 31-24 defeat against the Cincinnati Bengals alone had to be something of a shock to their system, especially coming at Lambeau Field, after a sharp preseason and season-opening win over the Chicago Bears last week.

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But Sunday’s upset did more than put them at 1-1. It also saw their offensive line melt down in the face of a shakeup that probably will last for at least a couple of weeks and perhaps longer, depending on the severity of left tackle Chad Clifton’s sprained right ankle. Though X-rays were negative, according to coach Mike McCarthy, Clifton was injured badly enough to be carted off the field.

Clifton is one of the players the Packers can least afford to lose because of the importance of protecting quarterback Aaron Rodgers’ blind side and the lack of pure left tackle to back him up. That was apparent Sunday, when the already struggling line fell apart after Clifton got hurt early in the third quarter. The injury forced left guard Daryn Colledge to bump out to left tackle, Jason Spitz to move from center to left guard and Scott Wells to come in at center. The result — a second half in which Rodgers was sacked four times and put up only three points.

It was a difficult circumstance for Colledge, who barely has worked at left tackle this year and sustained a sprained foot in practice Thursday that left him questionable for Sunday. But the fact remains, he’s probably going to have to play there at least a couple weeks while Clifton is out.

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“It’s obviously disappointing,” Colledge said of Clifton’s injury. “We thought we had a good five in there, and we thought we had the guys we’d make it through the season with. Chad worked extremely hard this offseason to be ready. If he’s out, that’s a large blow to us. But we’ll go back to work, and I’ll spend a lot of time working on my left tackle. I obviously have a lot of work that needs to be done. I’m not prepared to play the position at this moment, but hopefully after four days of practice, I’ll be better prepared for the game.”

Colledge, who has started two games at left tackle in his three-year NFL career, was unable to block defensive end Antwan Odom, who made history on this day. Coming into this season, Odom had 15˝ sacks in five NFL seasons, but he has started 2009 on a seven-sack binge that includes taking down Rodgers five times. By unofficial count, Clifton yielded one of those sacks and Colledge 3˝ — running back Ryan Grant fanned on one double-team block for the other half sack. The five sacks were the most the Packers have allowed one player in a game in franchise history.

That helped make for a miserable second half for Rodgers, who was sacked six times and hit 10. That put the brakes on a Packers offense that gained only 146 yards in the final three quarters until a desperation rally from 10 points behind in the final 2 minutes against the Bengals’ prevent defense.

Rodgers likely held the ball too long a couple times also, but the Packers’ offensive line is an unexpected problem at the start of 2009. In two games, Rogers has been sacked 10 times and hit 19, a pace that bodes poorly for his health.

“There’s a couple times where we (i.e., Rodgers) probably have to get the ball out, took a couple sacks where we probably didn’t have to take,” said Joe Philbin, the Packers’ offensive coordinator. “Obviously, there were a lot of times where the protection wasn’t what it needed to be. It would be easy, you could say the O-line’s terrible — we’re going to watch the film and we’re going to evaluate everybody.”

McCarthy and Philbin now face a major job: game planning around a re-made offensive line for upcoming games at St. Louis and Minnesota, and possibly longer if Clifton’s injury is severe or more damage crops up on further testing. Last week, McCarthy stuck with right tackle Allen Barbre, who couldn’t block Chicago end Adewale Ogunleye in the opener but seemed OK Sunday. Now, he really doesn’t have any viable options at left tackle other than Colledge, who stood tall in the locker room and took the heat for a horrible day filling in at the most difficult position on the offensive line.

“We know how special Aaron is and we know what he can do,” Colledge said. “But he can’t do that when he’s laying on his back. Every guy is going to say they had some problems today, but the big problem was me. I got him hit more than anybody else, that’s my fault.”